The challenges ahead to achieve a landmine free South Caucasus by 2030 were discussed in a report presented by the Director of LINKS Europe, Dr Dennis Sammut, at an event held in Geneva on Monday (19 June 2023) on the margins of this year’s Intersessional Meetings of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, popularly known as “The Ottawa Convention”. At the meeting, representatives of governments and international organisations reiterated their willingness to work for a landmine free South Caucasus by 2030. The meeting was also attended by representatives of civil society organisations from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. It was organised by LINKS Europe in its capacity as convenor of the regional campaign Landmine Free South Caucasus.In the opening report to the meeting, LINKS Europe Director, Dr Dennis Sammut called on Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to join the Ottawa Convention, but said that on its part the international community needed also to step up its efforts. He proposed that the first steps should be taken before the end of the year for the convening of an international donors conference where a plan for a landmine free South Caucasus by 2030 could be agreed. He proposed that the European Union, as the biggest donor for humanitarian demining in the South Caucasus, should take the initiative by hosting in the Autumn bilateral Round Tables with the three countries, focused on the issue of landmines and their consequences, to prepare for such an International Conference.

Representatives of governments and international organisations reiterated their willingness to work for a landmine free South Caucasus by 2030, during an event held in Geneva on Monday (19 June 2023) on the margins of this year’s Intersessional Meetings of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, popularly known as “The Ottawa Convention”. The meeting was also attended by representatives of civil society organisations from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. It was organised by LINKS Europe in its capacity as convenor of the regional campaign Landmine Free South Caucasus. In the opening report to the meeting, LINKS Europe Director, Dr Dennis Sammut called on Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to join the Ottawa Convention, but said that on its part the international community needed also to step up its efforts. He proposed that the first steps should be taken before the end of the year for the convening of an international donors conference where a plan for a landmine free South Caucasus by 2030 could be agreed. He proposed that the European Union, as the biggest donor for humanitarian demining  in the South Caucasus, should take the initiative by hosting in the Autumn bilateral Round Tables with the three countries, focused on the issue of landmines and their consequences, to prepare for such an International Conference.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar have become the latest Gulf countries to resume diplomatic ties in a string of diplomatic rapprochements in the region. Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the decision in a tweet on Monday (19 June), adding that embassies and consulates would reopen and resume work on the same day. The restoration of ties "represents the will of both countries’ leaders to strengthen joint Arab collaboration and achieve the aspirations of both peoples," the ministry said in a statement. The UAE’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who is also the Prime Minister, exchanged congratulations on the return of embassies, with both officials hailing the restoration of ties as heralding a “new stage of cooperation and partnership” that confirms the deeply rooted relations that bind both countries, according to a statement on Emirates News Agency (WAM). The current regional trend was in large part set in train by the announcement on 10 March that Saudi Arabia and Iran would restore diplomatic ties that had been broken since 2016.

Leaders and representatives of seven African countries - South Africa, Senegal, Zambia, Uganda, the Republic of the Congo, Comoros and Egypt - as well as the African Union chief Azali Assoumani, have arrived in Kyiv on Friday (16 June) to promote an African peace plan aimed at ending the ongoing war in Ukraine. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is among the African delegation, and arrived at Kyiv's Nemishaeve railway station where he was greeted by Ukraine's special envoy for Africa and the Middle East, Maksym Subkh, as well as the South African ambassador to Ukraine, Andre Groenewald. According the Reuters news agency, the full peace proposal, which has not yet been made public, includes suggestions of a full withdrawal of Russian troops, the removal of all tactical nuclear weapons from the territory Belarus, the suspension of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, and broad sanctions relief. After arriving in Kyiv, African leaders headed to the Kyiv suburb of Bucha to pay there respects to the some 458 people who were killed during a brief Russian occupation in the opening weeks of the full-scale invasion last year, and are buried in a mass grave there.